Snape as Neville's teacher

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 168507

Phoenixgod wrote:
> <snip> Seems to me like he only has that job because Dumbledore
needed him close by.  If he were a truly free man would he be a
teacher?  Does he have the calling?  I don't think he does and
ultimately that's what bothers me about him. I don't think he cares
about the students and I don't think he cares if they learn anything
or not.  He's just marking time and I think he's doing it at the
expense of the students of  Hogwarts.  As someone who thinks of
teaching as his calling that offends me.

Carol responds:
Although I disagree that Snape's teaching is harmful to the students
at Hogwarts (I really don't see a single student harmed by him, and
Ernie Macmillan, a *Hufflepuff,* seems to think he's a good teacher),
I agree that Snape would rather be doing something else (probably
research) involving the types of magic he excels at rather than
teaching. As far as he is concerned, the students are there to learn
the subject, and it's the subject (both Potions and DADA) that he loves.

But he's not alone. Does Professor Binns, droning on about goblin
rebellions and giant wars, care about the kids falling asleep in his
classroom? He can't even be bothered to learn their names. Does Hagrid
care about any of the kids except HRH? He brings dangerous creatures
to their first-ever lesson and then gives them useless flobberworms as
a project. Does Trelawney care about the kids? Harry is an interesting
"object" (she loves predicting his death), but she insults Hermione so
greatly that Hermione walks out of her class and never returns. She
even thinks preparing the kids for their OWLs is beneath her and her
beloved subject. Does Slughorn care about the kids? He either
"collects" them to be used for his own benefit or ignores them. He
doesn't know Ron's name after having him in a class of twelve students
for six months. As Slughorn himself says to Trelawney, "We all think
our subject is most important." IOW, we all care about the subject we
teach. Some of us (those who, like Snape, McGonagall, and Flitwick
lecture about the importance of OWLs) care that the students learn it.
But few or none of us care about the entire student body as people.
Few or none of us, except in exceptional circumstances, care about the
students' feelings. Look what happens when Snape says to Draco, "I
know you're upset about your father." He storms out of the room. Best
to leave feelings alone and stick to the subject. Or that's how Snape
would feel.

The WW is a tough world, and many of the subjects at Hogwarts are
dangerous. The teachers know that, which is why the better ones
advocate a no-nonsense approach. And if Harry hadn't been so sure from
the beginning that Snape hated Gryffindors in general and him in
particular, perhaps that approach would have worked for him as it did
for the ten students who go O's on their Potions OWLs with little
praise and no coddling (not even Draco is coddled; if he had messed up
a potion in Snape's class, Harry, and therefore the narrator, would
have noticed).

Carol, who thinks that a WW educational reformer who suggested that
would-be teachers study adolescent psychology and worry about their
students' self-esteem would be laughed out of the room